Thread: Video Conferencing

mployee travel on business is one of the largest component of corporate budgets. And it's the one budget head that's causing many a sleepless night for CFOs across enterprises, especially when they are scratching their heads figuring out ways to trim expenditure. It's easier said than done as in this era of cut-throat competition and shrinking bottom lines they don't even want to refuse meeting clients and risk incurring their wrath or losing out on prospective new orders. To make matters worse, employee travel only seems to be increasing with increased globalization. And swollen travel heads is not the only concern associated with too much travel. Such employees also end up spending less time on their seats, which means less in-house interaction, less focus on guidirrgjuniors and an overall reduction in productivity.
With the progress in technology, video conferencing evolved as an alternative medium of communication, although how effective it has been as a substitute for travel is for all to see (how many times have you actually used it?).



The quality of images transmitted and received and the amount of jitter (accentuated with poor bandwidths provided by underlying networks, still in their nascent stages) and the overall quality of experience (a person is left fiddling around with equipment more than he could focus on the actual conference) left a lot to be desired. So, there was a clear case for technology to upgrade itself to high-res equipment and ensure a seamless transfer of data across networks. Of course, when you are talking business to the other party, you wouldn't want your discussions to be held hostage by the quality of your equipment. Especially, when in the middle of a critical deal, as even a slightly raised brow is enough to draw suspicions!

High definition video conferencing is a very hot area for communication equip¬ment vendors and there are a lot of solutions floating around. These utilize all possible avenues and technologies that Internet has op.en€d up. You could look at. high-def video and audio conferencing, instant messaging, collaboration through whiteboards and chat and email; all these have been combined and now form part of standard unified communications solutions.

TelePresence is a few notches above. high-def video conferencing and includes all these different collaboration channels to form one unique solution fdr life-size corporate communication. The solution delivers a unique 'in-person meeting experience' by ensuring that all the key elements of a physical meeting are simu¬lated. This means the emphasis is not limited to using high-def communication equipment on high bandwidth network but also on other sundry aspects such as the size of the video screens, tables, chairs, alignment of mics, cameras, color of inte¬riors across all interacting locations. First, let's look at the technical requirements in more detail.